HardyBoy

@Augie In all seriousness though...people do feel this way reading through the Diggs trade thread. It's odd given Allens huge improvement in the intermediate passing game, but people think that way for sure.

Here's the thing, the quality receiving core needs a polished qb, and I watched a few games last season and Burrow seems super polished, and would be a great fit...go rewatch that GA Southern game, dude is a straight baller...5 tds! Think the Bengals would do Allen, Brown and Diggs for #1 overall and a rb? Oh and the first pick of the second round, because this is a super deep wr draft. The first pick of the second round is basically a first round pick after all.

I'm concerned...is Flaco available still?

So I agree, but I don't necessarily think the Pats are going to be feeling the pain immediately...sure they might have a down year or two, but I'm talking the prolonged mediocre non-relevance both the Bills and Dolphins faced that really set in about 5 years following the departure of those coaches and players. The Bills up through the music city miracle were pretty good and very competitive. The dolphins had the Taylor and Ricky Williams era, which was really competitive. I think what happens is the culture that was around when you had the franchise qb sticks around for a bit. Then the front office flails around a bit, players leave and the culture goes downhill. Then they start taking bigger and bigger risks to get success again, and even if some succeed, enough fail and you go into a downspin that will take years to recover from and they get fired. Then you bring in a new front office regime and instead of doing what McBeane did and refusing to play the hand their dealt, folding and starting again, they try to take a hand of 2 and 7 unsuited in the small blind and bet aggressively. You can't fire a front office because they created a situation that you deem is too broken to fix quickly, and ask the next group to come in and fix it quickly. That might be the biggest quality of McBeane...the humility to not think they could fix something that everyone else failed to fix...just admit it isn't possible and start over. That's a very long way of me saying, the Pats are potentially about to go on a long downward spiral that might start out ok, but will continue to spiral down...or they are smart and blow it up before they start making bad decisions when things start going south and hit a two or three year restart button...good luck, because fan expectations are what drive so much of that, and owners are not necessarily open to being honest about a rebuild, because that would hurt attendance and such.

Also, my wife owns a small business. The law that was just passed says she needs to pay up to 2 weeks of sick pay for every employee. Personally I think that having sick time for people is good, would make wages go down slightly, but you won't lose your job if your kid gets sick (sort of loke insurance). That said...a totally unplanned huge expense like that, where the government is saying don't worry, we got you covered, you can take out a 0 interest loan (that converts to 12% interest on any unpaid balance after the first year). This isn't going to just put her out of business (honestly I think it would anyway, and she is potentially going to pivot to something else), but this is going to take all the profit she was able to make over 3 years and put us into debt. Don't worry, they are going to help with social security payrol tax credits...will help all those companies that go out of business or need cash right when they start up again... Anyway, the pegulas might be trying to help people with the timing, but also heard if you did layoffs before the bill was signed you wouldn't have to pay...of course hopefully I'm wrong on above, I just know what is swirling around in the business groups she's in...she built it up to 25 employees with no start up money.

Was there a severance package?

No, we'll be missing the games taking care of all the people who haven't saved for retirement, plus the crazy number getting Alzheimer's, all while the infrastructure crumbles around us. In fort lauderdale, a sewer main has broken 7 times over the last 6 or so weeks, because the pipe is like 60 years old, made our of regular iron and the salt water, that is rising, is coroding an already super old pipe. Literal poop flowing into the rivers and the intercostal killing crazy amounts of fish and doing what the heck knows other kinds of environmental damage. Basically, so instead of everyone paying a bit over time and being respectful of future generations, many chose to give us a giant finger and spend their resources having a ton of fun going to games instead of paying anything forward...you call us selfish? I know it's not everyone, but you painted with a wide brush first op. If anyone wants to get mad at me for my wide brush, I encourage you to take it up with op

I agree...the counter is if they can find one that they believe is likely to contribute year 1 at a high level, that is highly valuable.

They adhere the principle of positional value and scarcity more though.

Haha, yes you're right...they put themselves in position over a 16 game season to play the lowest top seed in the wildcard because of the 5 seed. Then were basically within a 3rd and 18 from winning a road playoff game, where a super raw linebacker who has a literal hall of fame ceiling made a mistake that not only will he likely never do again in his career, but will be the single moment that will fuel him to work so damn hard he has a chance to reach that ceiling. We're definitely on the same page...?

Well, I got an update on how the screaming at the kid for his lack of self swinging skills as a 2.5 year old. Craziest thing...he just looks at me with this calm look in his eye and said "dam it daddy, you know I love you....but you have a hell of a lot to learn about rock and roll" ?

Can two things not be true at the same time? Also, maybe you're right, maybe I shouldn't look at potential and where someone has grown from and what they are likely to grow into, I should judge them immediately, harshly and without perspective. Yes, the more I think of it I think you're right. So grateful you cleared that up for me! Alright, I need to go scream at my 2.5 year old for not being able to make himself go without me having to push him on the swing. Might be a bit harsh, seeing he couldn't even sit on a big kid swing a few months ago, but so grateful for your logic...the kid will pump his legs, and he will pump them now!

Yeah, I saw it at the time...was sort of hoping it would get reviewed, but nope...damn nfl

Lol, let's be careful throwing the word dumb around so freely (I kid and it's early out your way ). It's not a 3 possession game, 19 points would have made it 3 possessions and that is the entire point of this thread. The strategy at 16-0 had to be to get it to 3 possessions first and foremost, even if that meant running a draw on 3rd and 5 from the 35 as a hypothetical.

How is trying to extend the lead to three scores just sitting on the lead? That was their regular d...that's the point, someone said earlier it was a standard cover 4 defense, not prevent. From what I've gathered Edmunds dropped too far back, which was a mistake by a player, and a mistake in the playcall. The receiver catching the ball 10 yards from the first with the entire defense ready to swarm is exactly what you want...Edmunds got too far away to swarm, he didn't cover his responsibility from the sound of it...he'll learn.

So that's not conservative play calling then (not saying you are saying they went conservative). Again, I would argue that it was worth being aggressive to get a field goal asap out of halftime. Now that for sure could mean run, protect the ball and play field position, and that's what they really were doing until the sack by Watt caused the wheels to fall off. I do think a field goal (three scores really, in the least risky way) is worth taking some risks that you extend the game some (passing instead of running like you mentioned), because up three scores is really tough to see them coming back from there. That said, my understanding of football strategy is that of a casual fan, so I could be wrong on the best way to get there, but making it a three score game was insanely important. Houston not only stopped it from happening, but they kept it a one score game with the 2pt converstion...that sack by Watt was huge. I'm arguing Dabol actually called a conservative pass with a half field read the throw it away, but Allen did hero ball (only way to explain Ford on Watt island)

Yes, I'm not talking about football in general or coaching philosophy overall. At the start of the second half up 16-0, going up by 3 scores is going for the throat. Doesn't matter if it's a fg or a touchdown there. Whatever is the most likely way to go up by three scores in that situation is the best strategy. Also, the Falcons were only up 28-3, so not by 30...going for "the throat" cost them a Super Bowl without question.

Exactly why we need to wait for the All 22...Allen literary lost his mind yesterday I think...it happens when you are in super stressful situations. Not a knock, it's why people go through crazy training for war (not in any way comparing war and a football game except both are stressful...obviously one is literally life and death and the other isn't at all, but brains have a hard time telling sometime). It happened to LeBron in the finals...dude wouldn't post up a guard who would have scored on every single possession in crunch time. He might have checked into runs on all those Gore runs for all we know. Singletary was struggling in pass pro, makes sense they would put Gore in to protect

This was never supposed to be the year, this team is still rebuilding. The offense is light years better than last season. This team is not ultra conservative on defense, and have gotten a lot more aggressive each year as they got better talent. With an extra year to largely finish the rebuild on offense, I am guessing the offensive aggressiveness ramps up to match the defense aggression.

Fair, and line I said I largely agree on the larger strategy of going for as many points as possible while things are working, but we need to see what their strategy looks like with an upgraded o-line and an additional wr before we are firing people (hopefully the oline is just an offseason for Ford). I would say that we really need to wait to see what the A22 shows as well. We're judging everything on outcome at the moment and not on what the playcall actually was and if they made sense given the formations and looks. Allen might have checked into wrong things too. Now I will absolutely give you they should have been going no huddle and calling plays at the line more, no idea why that happened so rarely. Also, they ran way, way more two TE than they had been. 11 personnel with Duke run blocking seemed like a dream match up given their CB depth, but maybe Watt and their dline caused that. Again, we really need the all 22 before we start firing people. Absolutely Ford got left on an island on the Watt sack, but if it was supposed to be a quick hitter to the left side, throw it away if the first or maaaaybe second read wasn't open (half field read) and Allen went off script and tried to look for his third read and got sacked then that's a good island to put Ford on, because he held up well long enough for that playcall. Going for 19 points there, whatever way they thought was best to get it, even if it meant playing field position for 3 drives to get a fg is the absolute key the moment they went into half 16-0. Everything before doesn't matter coming out of half...that said, neither does the Bills d holding them to 91 yards necessarily and the Texans are a known second half team (Hopkins half stat splits are wild).

Sure I understand the overall sentiment and the larger strategy and coaching philosophy debate, which I tend to agree that you need to go for as many points as quickly as possible while things are working, and letting your foot off the gas gives the other team a chance to get back in it. I'm talking specifically being up 16-0 starting the second half, you play for a field goal first to get it to a three score game. If you have the ball 4th and inches on their 13 yard line in that situation you basically have to kick I think as painful as that would be. Being up by 17+ points in the second half is absolutely huge and forces the other team to have to pass basically every down. 19 points where it would require 3 tds to lose is absolutely gigantically huge (assuming you can stop one of two 2pt conversions, which well...)

Ugh...so he didn't run away, that happened in his first year with Miami...it was the first of crazy long streak of straight finals appearances where he won a bunch of championships, but choked away the first one...a lot of those years he completely carried the team and with the Cavs he beat arguably the best team in the history of the league in a best of 7 series to win a championship.

Yup, huge play. Seriously, at 16-0 the strategy is to get it to 19-0 first. Bad strategy would be going for a td and taking a sack and getting out of fg range...now, I think on that Watt sack that sparked the comeback, they were trying an out and up double move with Duke, which is why Allen turned right into the sack, but need to A22 for that. In my opinion that should have been a draw or a quick hitter to get in better fg range, and I think they went for a td...which is why this they went all conservative narrative is a bit annoying, or at the very least premature.

Kelly in 91 or Kelly in 87? I think that's probably ok...I mean I'm not a football coach or player, so maybe someone could weigh in, but I would think you keep everything in front of you and swarm to get the tackle. I really think the play worked exactly as designed.

The goal there is 3 scores...doesn't matter if it's a td of a fg...3 scores and it's basically game over.